Table 3.

Main characteristics and technical differences among selected studies.

Paper	Year	Country	Category	Aim	Number of Subjects	Age Range of the Studied Population	Methodology	Specific Investigations/Reactants	Statistical Analysis and Validation	Limitations
Bais et al. [89]	2016	The Netherlands	Retrospective cross-sectional study	Investigation of new markers as diagnostic tools for discrimination between AHT and non-AHT	37 deceased infants (21 AHT cases, 16 controls)	10 to 1041 days	Immunohistochemistry	β-APP, ubiquitin, GFAP	Yes	Need for further experimentation for international validation
Lantz et al. [90]	2016	USA	Technical note	Description of smartphone still-image capture techniques in PMIO	Not applicable	Not applicable	Employment of smartphone flashlight and camera in addition to traditional PMIO	Not applicable	No	First and only article on the subject
Bais et al. [91]	2016	The Netherlands	Case report	Description of a long-term hemosiderin persistence in an AHT case	1 deceased infant, prior victim of AHT	5 months	Histopathology	Hematoxylin and eosin (H&E); Perl’s iron stain	No	Absence of a large cohort
Fieß et al. [88]	2016	Germany	Case report	Illustration of the correct process to diagnose AHT from eye examinations	1 infant	10 months	Clinical examination, autopsy, histopathology	Ophtalmoscopy and histological confirmation by H&E staining	No	Absence of a large cohort, no statistical validation
Yusuf et al. [92]	2017	United Kingdom	Case series	Audit the use of non-contact ultra-widefield retinal imaging in infants with suspected abusive head trauma (AHT)	5 infants	1 to 15 months	Clinical assessment in living subjects	P200MA Scanning Laser Ophthalmoscope	No	Absence of a large cohort, no statistical validation
Puanglumyai et al. [71]	2017	Thailand	Case series	Demonstration of ONSH importance over RH in AHT diagnosis	11 deceased infants, victims of AHT	1 to 24 months	Autopsy, histopathology	Removal of orbital roof, bilateral exposure and fixation of ONs, H&E staining	No	Absence of a large cohort, no statistical validation
Oshima et al. [93]	2017	Japan	Case report	Investigating the mechanism of peripapillary scleral hemorrhages	4 subjects. of whom 1 infant was the victim of AHT	1 month	Autopsy, histopathology	Microscopic observation of peripapillary scleral hemorrhages	No	Simple description of an encountered case
Del Bigio et al. [94]	2017	Canada	Retrospective monocentric study	Creating an injury timing interval chart based on microscopic findings	62 infants, of whom 9 were victims of AHT	8 to 124 weeks	Autopsy, histopathology	Hematoxylin and eosin (H&E); Perl’s iron stain; Martius scarlet blue	Yes	Absence of complete ocular examination
Delteil et al. [95]	2019	France	Retrospective multicenter study	Construction of a histological diagnostic tool for RH timing	83 deceased infants (48 males, 35 females), victims of AHT	0 to 36 months	Histopathology	Hematoxylin and eosin (H&E); Perl’s iron stain	Yes	-
Zuccoli et al. [96]	2020	Italy	Retrospective monocentric study	Providing ONSH evidence in survival AHT cases	13 infant victims of AHT	1.2 to 20.8 months	MRI	3D-SWI protocol	Yes	Absence of control subjects; lack of intracranial findings analysis
Barth et al. [87]	2020	Germany	Case report	Highlighting the possibility of unilateral RHs in confirmed AHT cases	2 infants	2 and 2.5 months	Clinical assessment in living subjects	Ophthalmoscopy	No	Anecdotal validity, despite growing evidence in literature of unilateral RHs among AHT victims
Cartocci et al. [78]	2020	Italy	Review	Broad view on the main MRI findings in the central nervous system in cases of AHT	Not applicable	Not applicable	MRI	Combination of coronal T2-w, T1-w and axial GRE T2-w protocols to detect extra-axial hemorrhages such RHs	No	Lack of large-cohort studies available at the time; variability in techniques across considered studies
Maiese et al. [98]	2021	Italy	Review	New immunohistochemical technique proposal	Not applicable	Not applicable	Histopathology	Application of Glycophorin A immunoreaction and confocal laser scanning microscopy to RHs	No	Need for large scale validation of the proposed technique
Oliva et al. [99]	2021	Italy	Retrospective monocentric study	Combination of RETcam and OCT as a diagnostic and prognostic tool in AHT victims	6 infants	0.6 to 10 months	Clinical assessment in living subjects	Combination of RETcam and OCT	Yes	Need for further application of the proposed protocol
Bulirsch et al. [100]	2021	Germany	Prospective cross-sectional study	Investigation of retinal Müller cells immunoreactivity in response to AHT in children	37 infants, of whom 5 were victims of AHT	1 to 8 months	Histopathology	Hematoxylin and eosin (H&E); Periodic-acid Schiff (PAS) reaction; Immunoreaction against Nestin, CD44, collagen type IX, GFAP	Yes	First article on the subject, need for a large cohort
Moskwa et al. [97]	2022	France	Retrospective monocentric study	Strengthening the correlation between specific ophthalmological lesions and AHT	133 infants	14 days to 10 months	Clinical assessment in living subjects	Ophthalmoscopy	Yes	Need for a multicentric data collection and analysis of other variables